The Halo Way

I missed this game, but on Sunday the Angels had one of the greatest comebacks in team history scoring seven runs in the bottom of the 9th to win 10 – 9. The win put the Angels in 1st place.

http://atmlb.com/2oWOABK

Down 9 – 3:

Pujols hits leadoff home run now 9 – 4
Pennington walks
Cron singles
Revere walks
Espinosa hits into fielder’s choice, Penningston scores, 2nd / 3rd now 9 – 5
Maldonado strikes out, two outs, two on, still down 4
Escobar doubles, Cron scores, Revere scores, now 9 -7 with runner on 2nd
Calhoun walks, two on, two out, Mike Trout now represents the winning run
Trout walks, bases loaded, tying runner on 2nd, winning run on 1s, still two outs
Pujols singles to tie the game with Escobar and Calhoun scoring. Pujols has two hits in the inning.
Pennington walks it off with a deep shot to RCF that they call a single. Trout scores the winning run.

 

The power farm

john_deere_sulky_plow

Fun with minor league stats, Dodger farm hands lead three of their four respective leagues in home runs as they plow through their acreage like a John Deere steel gang plow.

PCL – O’Koyea Dickson and Brett Eibner tied for league lead in home runs with three

California League – Ibandel Isabel leads league in home runs with three

Midwest League – Carlos Rincon leads league in home runs with four

Buehler and Bellinger deliver

Many things went right last night but ultimately the Cubs and Jon Lester came out on top once again.

For Dodger fans, most of Monday was spent watching the Cubs take what seemed like hours to celebrate their 2016 World Championship, and then defeat the Dodgers in a walk off.

With the big club struggling,  we turn our attention to the farm system which is in a full spring super bloom.

Working from top to bottom:

Cody Bellinger had three more hits and has hit in all five games this season. He has three multi-hit games out of the five.  He also has six strikeouts in just 21 at-bats.

Willie Calhoun hit another double and joins Bellinger in the .400 club. He has also only struck one once this year.

Hard to imagine anyone hotter than Brett Eibner. Brett hit a home run in his lone at-bat and has six straight hits dating back over three games.  He has only started two of the five games but he has made the most of his meager eleven at-bats, pounding out seven hits, one double, and three home runs.

Julio Urias made his first start of 2017 and unlike 2016 where he blew through April on his way to the Dodger rotation in May, he was human in this game. 11 outs, two earned runs, two hits, and four walks.

1st baseman Ibandel Isabel hit his 3rd HR, and now leads the Cal League in home runs

Walker Buehler made his 2017 debut and wowed those in attendance with his plus-plus stuff.

RF Carlos Rincon hit two home runs and has now homered in three straight games. He has four on the year, two more than anyone else in the MWL. The 19-year-old was ranked 33rd by David Hood.

19-year-old shortstop Brandon Davis continued his hot streak rocketing his first home run of the year. Davis has hit in every game including four walks to give him a robust .650 OBP. He is repeating the season and it will be curious where he goes when Gavin Lux is ready to play.

 

The confounding Lester

The lasting image of Jon Lester beating the Dodgers for the NLC crown is of Enrique Hernandez dancing like a fool off of 1st base. His job was to rattle the man who had thrown over 2,000 innings while being one of the best October pitchers of his generation.

Predictably it did not work and the Lester led Cubs beat the Dodgers  8 – 4.  Lester did his job giving up only one run.  It was a close game until the 8th when the floodgates opened and the Cubs scored five runs off the Dodger bullpen.

You are taught to respect the pitchers that can do it all. Pitch, field, bat, help shut down the running game. It appears that Jon Lester can only do one of those four things, but it is the most important of the four, and he’s pretty damn good at the pitching thing.

It is easy to mock a guy who pays zero attention to any runner who gets on base against him. It is not so easy to mock him when he walks off the mound without letting that runner score.

Lester is a weird pitcher, but he’s one hell of a pitcher.

Franklyn Gutierrez was brought in to help beat pitchers like Jon Lester. Franklyn has the history of pummeling left-handed pitchers but success against Jon Lester has eluded him in the past. He is only five for twenty-three against Lester with one XBH.

Justin Turner is hitless in eleven at-bats against Lester in the regular season. In two games against Lester last year in October, Turner went two for eight with two singles.

Does anyone remember the home run that Andre Ethier hit off of Lester in game one? I don’t.

In the two games that Lester pitched, Andrew Toles went a combined 3 for 3 but none of the hits came against Lester,  they all came off the bench.

Baseball Notes 4/10/17

I love early season stats.

Matt Kemp leads MLB in slugging % and OPS at 1.125 / 1.654. Matt has four doubles and two home runs sixteen at-bats.

Jason Castro of the Twins walked seven times last week and leads MLB in OB%. Castro walked only 45 times all of last year.

Matt Reynolds leads all of baseball in total bases with twenty-one. Reynolds came into Rockies camp with an NRI and turned it into a starting gig when Desmond broke his hand.

Justin Turner is tied for the MLB lead in doubles with Travis Shaw at five.

Salvador Perez is tied for the MLB lead in home runs with four. Perez home run totals have been trending up each year 13 – 17 – 21 – 22. With four already in the books, he may just keep that trend going.

Realmuto and Matt Kemp are tied at 10 in Runs Created.

 

LAD System POTW – 4/10/17

Dodgers:

Pitching – I’m going with Hyun-Jin Ryu simply because he made his first start in Coors, and no one really thought he’d ever get there. He didn’t win his game but he pitched well enough to win and more importantly, he looks very much like the Ryu who was the best number three starter in baseball in 2015.  We don’t know if his shoulder/arm/elbow will hold up but we can say,  he made it back.

Hitting – Puig, and Turner were in a deadlock on the offensive side, but since I saw Puig hit his two bombs on Thursday, I have to go with Puig. Hopefully, this will be the first of many this year.

Farm System:

Prospect Hitting – Ibande Isabel blasted two home runs in route to a 1.203 OPS. Honorable mention to Brendon Davis who starts off the year by going six for eleven with three doubles.

Overall  Hitting – O’Koyea Dickson slugged three home runs and put up an OPS of 2.143 with ten hits in only fourteen at-bats. Brett Eibner gets honorable mention by going six for ten with a double and two home runs.

Prospect pitching – Mitch White made his season debut in Rancho and threw four hitless innings, walking three, with five punchouts.

Overall pitching – Jair Jurrjens pitched a gem in his first start for AAA, going six innings, giving up three hits, one run, walking zero, and striking out three.  Jair is in AAA for rotation depth and something will have to go wrong for him to pitch for the Dodgers but that was a nice season debut for the thirty-one-year-old journeyman who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2014. Somebody named Parker Curry hurled a gem for the Loons. Curry struck out six of his ten outs without giving up a hit or walk.

Who is Parker Curry you ask? I’m glad you did, Harold Uhlman has the info on the undrafted pitcher from Samford. 

In his senior year with the Bulldogs, the 5’9” / 155-pound Curry had a 7-2 record over 78 innings pitched while posting a 3.69 ERA along with 60 strikeouts and 23 walks.

He was not selected in the 2016 June Draft but was signed – perhaps unexpectedly – by the Dodgers on July 6. His message following his signing was a simple, but heartfelt, “Blessed. Thank you.”

That 5’9 probably explains why he went undrafted and why I’ll be keeping on eye on him and rooting the little guy on.

Weekly summation 4/9/17 – Runs a plenty, wins not so much.

With a week of baseball in the books,  the Dodgers managed a 4  – 3 record which puts them smack in the middle of the NL West.  It was a strange week where the offense scored in double digits three times in seven games.   When you outscore your opponents 40 runs to 22 you’d probably expect to win at least five of those seven but when 34 of those 40 came in three games you realize they were lucky to win four games.

On the plus side:

  • they only lost one pitcher to the DL in Rich Hill.
  • they finally tagged a left-handed pitcher on Sunday
  • Puig has the highest OPS on the team
  • They have four starting players with an OPS over .900
  • Ryu and McCarthy gave solid efforts
  • Kershaw has yet to issue a walk in 2017
  • Josh Fields looks to have recovered his velocity
  • Chris Hatcher has started 2017 very nicely

On the negative side:

  • After opening day heroics, Grandal and Joc went into hibernation.  Grandal hit two home runs on opening day and those were his last hits for the week. Joc hit the grand slam on opening day and managed three singles the rest of the week. That means they were meaningless in Coors.
  • Enrique Hernandez and Franklyn Gutierrez didn’t do much damage against LHP when asked upon.
  • Clayton Richard toyed with the Dodgers.
  • Freeland didn’t toy with them but he certainly beat them
  • Logan Forsythe woke up on Sunday, but prior to that he had been MIA

 

Name                 PA R  H 2B HR RBI SB   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS OPS+
Yasiel Puig          29 5  7  2  3   5  1 .292 .414 .750 1.164  197
Justin Turner        26 3 10  5  0   3  1 .400 .423 .600 1.023  165
Corey Seager         29 4  8  2  2   7  1 .308 .379 .615  .995  155
Adrian Gonzalez      26 5  7  2  0   3  0 .350 .500 .450  .950  153
Joc Pederson         21 2  4  0  1   6  0 .250 .381 .438  .818  115
Austin Barnes        11 3  2  0  0   0  1 .222 .364 .444  .808  111
Scott Van Slyke      10 2  2  1  0   1  0 .250 .400 .375  .775  106
Andrew Toles         18 3  4  0  1   3  0 .250 .333 .438  .771  101
Enrique Hernandez     8 2  1  1  0   2  1 .167 .375 .333  .708   89
Yasmani Grandal      20 2  2  0  2   3  0 .118 .211 .471  .681   71
Logan Forsythe       29 4  6  1  0   1  0 .250 .379 .292  .671   81
Franklin Gutierrez   13 2  3  2  0   0  0 .231 .231 .385  .615   58
Chase Utley          12 1  1  0  0   0  0 .083 .083 .083  .167  -56

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/10/2017.

Name                     ERA   IP ER BB SO ERA+   FIP  WHIP   H9 BB9  SO9
Clayton Kershaw         3.46 13.0  5  0 14  124  4.84 0.769  6.9 0.0  9.7
Kenta Maeda             6.30 10.0  7  3  9   69  4.70 1.400  9.9 2.7  8.1
Brandon McCarthy        3.00  6.0  2  1  4  148  4.33 0.833  6.0 1.5  6.0
Rich Hill (10-day dl)   1.80  5.0  1  3  5  249  5.40 1.000  3.6 5.4  9.0
Chris Hatcher           1.80  5.0  1  0  5  249  1.00 1.000  9.0 0.0  9.0
Hyun-Jin Ryu            3.86  4.2  2  1  5  117  4.28 1.500 11.6 1.9  9.6
Luis Avilan             0.00  3.2  0  1       4  1.63 0.818  4.9 2.5  9.8
Ross Stripling          2.70  3.1  1  0  5  172 -0.00 1.200 10.8 0.0 13.5
Grant Dayton            0.00  3.0  0  0       2  1.66 0.333  3.0 0.0  6.0
Kenley Jansen           9.00  2.0  2  0  2   55  1.00 1.500 13.5 0.0  9.0
Alex Wood               0.00  2.0  0  1       1  3.49 0.500  0.0 4.5  4.5
Sergio Romo             0.00  2.0  0  0       2  1.00 0.500  4.5 0.0  9.0
Josh Fields             0.00  1.1  0  1       4 -0.75 0.750  0.0 6.8 27.0
Team Totals             3.10 61.0 21 11 62  146  3.42 0.984  7.2 1.6  9.1
Rank in 15 NL teams        2    4  5  1                                 3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/10/2017.

OK O’Koyea

Cody Bellinger, Willie Calhoun, Rob Segedin, Edwin Rios,  and Alex Verdugo will have to wait their turn because this weeks LAD Farm Factory award goes to O’Koyea Dickson who out muscled every hitter in the system.

O’Koyea started hitting with authority last May and has yet to stop. He hit all summer. He he hit all spring. He’s still hitting. Mr. Dickson tore up the PCL this week and now has ten hits in only fourteen at-bats, including one double, and three big flies. Sporting a 2.143 OPS.

 

Blast from the Past – Go Go Go

With Phil on vacation here is a blast from the past with Easter just around the corner.

Almost three years to the day, Dee Gordon was enthralling Dodger fans with his blend of speed and excitement. I hearkened back to the day of Maury Wills, and the inaugural season of Dodger Stadium when Maury captivated Dodger fans with his MVP season built on 104 stolen bases.  With Maury in mind, I penned this little ditty for TrueBlueLA after spending a delightful evening at the Ravine with David Young and Craig Minami.  One of my favorites and maybe the last time my mind ran wild with imagination.

http://www.truebluela.com/2012/4/12/2943564/deegordon

 A sad King Eric was frustrated with his abject poverty as he contemplated how to tribute the new Knight Kershaw who was going to be honored at the Chavez Ravine Temple for his grand deeds the previous summer. He had no trinkets to lay forth, his kingdom of True Blue was awash in useless knowledge but had little in the way of intrinsic value.

With a big sigh, he knew what he had to do but was reluctant to use his powers, as his followers were a bitter bickering fickle flock who had other kingdoms they could change alliances to if he used his powers poorly. Still, something had to be done, so the tweet was sent.

Put the mod’s in action

ModCraig quickly tweeted that he was available and that he had ModDavid in tow. With consternation, King Eric noticed ModMeerkat also had said he would do what he could. King Eric was aghast, he had not counted on the ModMeerKat to be a follower. Nothing could be done other than to pray to Saint Scully and hope for the best.

The wet rain that had blanketed the blue basin ran out of steam around noon and gave way to a glorious spring day, the kind of day that poems are inspired by, love, and babies. It would be a good night to honor the newest Blue Knight.

The mods converged on the Chavez Ravine Temple from all corners of the blue basin. They did not have a star to guide them but their GPS did the trick. ModDavid who hails from the NorthWest, came from the South and refused to pay duty to the evil King Frank, and parked on Academy. ModMeerKat came from the West, and also refused to pay tribute, not because he had any problems with King Frank but because he simply was a cheap bastard, not by choice but because the North American Meerkat is born that way. ModCraig was simply lazy and paid the tribute so his task of surmounting the daunting flights of concrete steps would be lessened.

In this way, the BlueMods made their way into the Temple. ModKat was the first to arrive but since ModDavid and ModCraig did not really want to sit with him they refused to tell him where they were sitting. Yet he knew from previous sojourns the whereabouts so he placed himself in the general area. Eventually, ModDavid showed up, saw ModMeerKat from afar but kept silent as he wanted no one around to notice he was eating four blue dogs. Luckily for him, the ModMeerkat was oblivious to him until he had finished his feast. ModMeerkat ever weary of the tricks cast his eyes about and finally noticed ModDavid. With a skip to his step, he quickly ran over to join his good friend. Like a good friend ModDavid pretended to be happy that he had company and they settled into for the brief wait before ModCraig joined them.

ModCraig meant well but the seats he provided were in the high heavens. As the Blue Knight Kershaw was honored they did their best to honor him by beating their collective breasts but the thumping of flabby breasts was drowned out by the distance. The Blue Knight was gone and the three mods were left to wonder if they had done enough to make the decent King Eric happy. Deep down they knew they had failed, again. It silently gnawed at them as none of them had the nerve to talk about it.

Each of them had noticed a strange feeling starting around the third mark of the contest. A sense of urgency was building, a tingling sensation they had felt before but couldn’t remember when. Finally, ModDavid voiced what they had all been thinking. We must get closer he said, we must leave the heavens, the ninety-nine percent and join with the one percent. In unison, they agreed and got up to take on the task of leaving the comfort zone for the ball zone. ModCraig was pleased as punch when he pulled out his new gold membership cards that allowed him to move freely from level to level. He gave one to ModDavid and they proceeded with the plan expecting ModKat to be left behind. Yet the Modkat had skills of his own and pinched a ticket from an unwary patron which would allow him to follow his fellow Mod’s on their quest.

As the three blue Mod’s started down the harrowing steps, an aura developed around them discernible to only the true believers. They were a motley crew who were short of statue, short of wisdom, with little life left. Why King Eric had chosen them for this task was as confusing as to why James Loney was allowed to hit against a Loogy when he had been benched in the first place because he could not hit left-handers. In a word, it was befuddling.

Yet this crew did have something. Combined they knew everything about the history of the Chavez Ravine Temple and the power of the temple sensed something within this trio and fed them with the energy to complete the task. As they entered the ball zone, a row of seats opened up for them and beckoned for them to take them. So they did. One by one they plopped into their seats and as they do so a power surge shifted from the seats through the asses to the tips of their fingers. They looked at each other in awe.

The other patrons felt something had changed and looked around and saw the three mods. Some simply saw three short fans who looked like any other fans, but others saw more. They could see the blue aura hovering around them, they saw a glow, they saw knowledge. They felt hope.

In the eighth frame, the young Gordon came to the plate and got on the base. With that action, the trio realized why they were there. The old stadium infused them with the knowledge of what they needed to do. But who would lead them? ModDavid of course, he cupped his hand, and with all the training his karaoke had provided belted out the first cue. GO

ModKat quickly followed GO

ModCraig finished the crescendo with the final GO.

Quickly they realized this was a chant and in unison

GO GO GO

GO GO GO

Nothing happened

But everything happened.

Old men who had not heard the chant for 50 years woke up in their seats. Young girls who could scream anything realized they could scream something that meant something for the first time in their lives. Young boys who just wanted to make noise realized what a joy it was to yell that simple word.

Again

GO GO GO

again nothing happened, but with each chant, more patrons felt moved to join the trio of Mods.

King Eric noticed from atop his throne and stood up. The tyrant Simers bellowed for him to sit down but King Eric knew this was his time. He put out his hands and broke the law of the land.

GO GO GO he bellowed

GO GO GO his disciples screamed

GO GO GO his mod’s chanted

and this time, something did happen.

It wasn’t Magic, it was Dodger Baseball

Be there

Hill joins Kazmir and Stewart on DL

It didn’t take long for Rich Hill’s blister to show it’s ugly face in 2017, putting Hill on the DL after only one start. He’ll be joining Scott Kazmir and Brock Stewart on the DL. The rotation spot for this Monday will either be taken by Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, or Julio Urias.

This might depend on if they have to use Wood or Stripling this weekend. Urias was set to pitch Monday for Oklahoma so he could simply slot into the spot though he was only supposed to pitch about four innings. I’m not sure Wood or Stripling could go any more than four innings either.

Anyway

Healthy – Kershaw, Maeda, McCarthy, Ryu, Wood, Stripling, Urias

DL – Kazmir, Hill, Stewart

Hopefully this 10 day DL is exactly that for Rich Hill to get his blisters in order.